


La Morte d'Altea

by 15Strawberries



Series: Voltron Rare Pair Week [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Multi, Temporary Character Death, Voltron Rarepair Week 2017, fairytale AU, space mythology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 12:27:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9820547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/15Strawberries/pseuds/15Strawberries
Summary: Once upon a time, long ago, a daughter was born to the king and queen of Altea . . . .





	

**Author's Note:**

> For day seven of the Voltron Rare Pair week.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, a daughter was born to the king and queen of Altea. The king and queen were overjoyed, for they had been too long without an heir.

As was tradition, they contacted the best fortune-tellers and seers and scryers of their empire and bid them read the signs, to tell the princess’s fate.

The seers watched the stars, cast their bones, read their cards, gazed into their mirrors and pools of water. They saw grace, wisdom and courage, every auspice a future ruler could hope for. They told the king and queen there was greatness in the princess’s future.

All except one. An old oracle from a distant planet, who contacted the palace with a dire warning.

The princess must never fall in love, or Altea would be destroyed.

The king and queen invited the oracle to the palace itself, to see if a closer reading might yield a happier future. The oracle read the lines on the princess’s tiny hands and repeated her warning, the princess must never fall in love or Altea would fall.

Yet there was hope. The oracle told the king and queen that not one person could hope to hold the princess’s heart.

The king and queen grieved, for they had wished every happiness for their daughter. But they were royals, and well knew the burdens of ruling. This was just one more they would have to bear.

The princess grew, tall and strong, with a fiery temper and a fierce heart. In due time, the king and queen told her of the oracle’s prophecy and the princess immediately vowed that she would never fall in love. Altea would come first, before everything else. Always.

On the princess’s sixteenth birthday, as was the custom, a tournament was held in her honor, to choose the members of her royal guard. Warriors from across the galaxy came to compete, showing off their skills. Of all who came to compete, three arose above all others.

One, a brilliant young captain of the Altean fleet, well liked by his fellows and already proven in war. One, a young vagabond from the edges of the galaxy, who fought like a fury and flew like devils chased him. And one, a mysterious warrior armored from head to toe, who disappeared after the end of each competition.

The last contest of the tournament was a battle royale that pitted all the remaining contestants against each other. After the dust had cleared, only three remained, the captain, the vagabond and the mysterious warrior.

The warrior removed her helm, revealing herself to be the princess of Altea. She declared the tournament over, and that she was well pleased with the results.

She smiled at the captain and the vagabond and asked if they would follow her.

They knelt in the dust then and there, beneath the Altean sky, and swore their fealty to her.

There are many stories told, about the princess of Altea and her two greatest knights. They had countless adventures; they righted wrongs, they dispensed justice. They saved worlds.

The princess watched them-- her knights, her brothers in arms, her dearest friends, laugh and fight and fly together . . . .

And realized she had broken her vow.

Their duty to Altea remained. The princess was promised to another, the son of the Galran emperor, and her marriage to him would unite the two empires and secure peace and prosperity throughout the galaxy for another age. They knew their time together was limited, but all three were determined to take their happiness where they could find it.

Only the Galran prince found out, somehow. And he was the jealous sort, so he set his witch to curse the princess, then declared war to avenge the insult on his honor.

The princess was struck down in the middle of her stronghold, Altea besieged by things from the void that sailors will only whisper of. The Galra fleet swept across the Altean empire, reducing its homeworlds to ash and rubble.

The oracle's prophecy had come true. The princess had fallen in love and Altea was destroyed.

 

 

 

 

But that is not the end of the story.

The princess was stuck down by the curse, yes. But she did not die.

The captain fought like a demon to drive back the horrors that had overrun the palace, carving a path to the palace hangar. And the vagabond outflew magic itself to bring his loves to safe harbor, somewhere far away from the Galran prince.

But the witch who had cursed the princess was cunning, and knew that so long as the princess drew breath those who stood against the Galran conquest would rally to her. The princess must die.

So when the vagabond finally brought their ship to port, the witch was waiting for them, chanting the final words of the curse that would rend the princess’s soul from her body and scatter it to the far corners of the galaxy--

The captain stepped forward and took the blow.

The princess awoke, and she and the vagabond could only watch as the captain’s body scattered into stardust.

They flew into a rage drove the witch away, never to be seen again.

Altean royals have always been magic. And neither the princess nor the vagabond would let their love be taken from them without a fight.

The vagabond scoured the galaxy, searching for the pieces of the captain’s body that the witch’s curse had scattered. And the princess stitched the pieces together and sang them whole.

When the time came, when they had found everything but the captain’s soul, the princess and the vagabond went to the river of star that separated the land of the living from the dead.

The princess called across the stars, bidding the ferryman to let them cross.

But there was no answer.

Then the vagabond called across the stars, pleading the ferryman for safe passage.

But there was no answer.

Then the princess took the vagabond’s hand in hers, stated her grievances and threatened to bring war to the very gates of Hades if her demands were not met.

A light appeared on the other side of the river Styx. It burned bright and still for one moment, then took off, fire streaming from it like a comet.

The vagabond followed it.

Through asteroid fields, looping planets and moons, diving around stars, the vagabond flew, and flew, and flew, until final he had caught the light. Charon’s lantern.

The princess and the vagabond affixed it to their ship and followed it to the land of the dead.

They came upon a set of gates, guarded by a vicious monster that snapped and snarled at the end of its chain, trying to tear their ship from the sky.

But the princess sang, and the monster calmed, lulled to sleep by the magic in her voice. They disembarked and passed through the gates unharmed.

They followed Charon’s lantern to an obsidian palace, where a woman crowned in starfire was seated upon a skeleton throne.

The queen of the dead demanded their names. But the princess was wise and saw the trap, for to give your name to the queen of the dead was to bind yourself to her forever. She called herself the princess of lost Altea, and the vagabond her knight.

The princess pleaded her case before the queen of the dead, told her that foul magic had stolen their love from them before his time had come. She and the vagabond had toiled long and hard to remake his body, now all that was left was to return the soul.

The queen bade them away. They did not know what they asked for.

Again, the princess asked the queen of the dead for the soul of their love.

The queen warned that them that the witch’s curse had scarred the soul past all healing. Better that it stay in her domain, where it could finally rest.

If he wishes to stay, we will leave, said the princess. But please, let us ask him first.

Then the queen of the dead flew into a rage, calling them villains and thieves. What did they have that could possibly equal the price of a soul?

Nothing, said the princess, nothing but love and luck.

The princess offered the queen of the dead a wager. Test them, however the queen saw fit. If they succeeded, she would give them the soul of their love and allow them to return unharmed to the land of the living. If they failed, they would serve her and her house until the end of times.

The queen was well pleased, and waved her arm.

Two shades appeared.

One was bright and gleamed like polished silver. The other was tarnished and scarred. But the vagabond and the princess looked upon them and could see their captain, finally before them once more.

Choose, said the queen of the dead. Choose which one is the soul of your love. Choose correctly and all may go free.

The princess and the vagabond studied the two shades, shining beauty and pitiful darkness. Then they spoke together and named both shades their captain, their love. _Shiro._

The two shades blurred together, two halves becoming one.

They had passed the test.

The queen of the dead kept her word. The princess and the vagabond returned to the land of the living with the captain’s soul, where the princess stitched it back into his body and sang it whole.

Their captain breathed.

I might tell you that when the captain opened his eyes, he fell into his lovers’ arms. I might tell you how he scolded them for their reckless quest, and how they scolded him for believing they would do nothing while there was even the smallest chance to save him. I might tell you what the planned next, to avenge their fallen countrymen and strike back at their foes, the Galran empire.

But that is another story.

**Author's Note:**

> This one is super experimental. I wanted to go all out for AU Day and tried for a traditional fairy tail style . . . with added polyamory and space shenanigan!


End file.
